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MH Vancouver
I am grateful to Catherine for her steadfastness, her courage, her struggles, and her perseverance in trying to live the Gospel and pass it on to us, the members of the family she founded, and to so many others.
Many times, we don’t see God’s work, but sometimes he allows us to see it.
I am thinking particularly of a couple who became friends with us in Vancouver. Sent from their Christian church many years ago to be with another community for the summer, they didn’t have a particular work or job to do.
They wondered about the value of being there. They weren’t “doing” anything. They lived with the people, listened and prayed with them, became friends with some. Still, they felt they hadn’t “done” anything.
Years went by. They read Catherine’s book, Poustinia, and came to visit us at Madonna House in Vancouver. As they began to reflect on the Little Mandate, especially the line—Being poor, being one with them, one with Me—they understood the meaning of their time in that small community years ago.
I was privileged to see another work of God in a couple I met shortly after arriving in Vancouver. I will call them Betty and Peter.
After I was introduced to Betty, one of the first things she told me was how grateful she and her husband, Peter, were to Madonna House, especially in the early years of their marriage as they tried to follow the Church’s teaching—especially when they hadn’t been able to find support from other young couples.
Betty prayed that Madonna House would come to Vancouver, which we did in 2002. Since then, their whole family have become our good friends.
Both of these couples have begun to meet regularly with some younger couples and us at Madonna House as we share about living the Little Mandate. We have all gone deeper into the Little Mandate and have been enriching each other.
